ExRx.net

Hi Everyone,

A friend referred me to this site for information about training and so far, I like it. Just a bit about myself, I’m currently studying from home to become a personal trainer with only 6months left to complete my course, I have mainly being doing martial arts training because that’s what I like most and some yoga on the side as well.
My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to learn more about the body through my course and gain strength / size. It is however my first time going to a gym properly and studying from home I don’t really have a coach or buddy to guide me as much as I would like too.

What I would like to do is share the program I made for myself with you all and get some feedback on it. I’ve started out with endurance exercises first purely because I don’t have a strength base at all, and my martial arts mainly consist of explosive power and i was told if i started that it would be working against me, probably because of the muscle type fibre.

My goal is to build some size and strength, then progress over to strength and power exercises. With that said i have a few conditions that may limit me and I wanted to be 100% sure it was a realistic plan.

( Also told by a friend from my martial arts training (They used to be P.T) to progress into polymetric training to compliement my martial arts but im concerned that explosive training might damage my lower back)

Oh and I did send my program to my online tutor, they said it was fine as long as I didn’t do any lat pull downs and also recommended that I do this for a month then work on strength as I get used to the exercise.

I am going to copy and paste the program i sent to my tutor and you will see advice in red and black text being myself. Finally, if you have adjustments or have a better program for me please feel free to share it or alter the current one i have to keep it simple!
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Postural Conditions: Winged scapula, protruding head, rounded shoulders, slight pelvic tilt ( yeah i sit a lot ...) and pronated feet , hard to say I’m not sure. Also have lower back condition ,Lumber No nerve damage.

5-10min Warm up on , Treadmill 60-70% MaxHR

Building Endurance first with 12-15 Reps / 2 Sets / SOM 202 / 1min - 1.5min Rest between sets / Starting with exercises that essential for my posture first.

1. Seated Row
2. Bench press or Push ups.
3. Back Extensions
4. Dips –Triceps/biceps (I would do this after the legs as its an isolation exercise)
5. Squat Barbell ( no weights, just doing it for form) OR 45 Degree leg press
6 .Lunge Walking
Good balance
Now from here onwards I'm doing abdominals and i was wondering if i could train in the one session all my core muscles or only just one of them. About dot come website says that if you just train on area of the abs you can create a imbalance between your muscles causing injury, so i would think you need to alternate the workout everyday between TVA and Internal/ Ext Oblique's. But my question is can i do it all in one session ? is it safe or better that way ? - I like workouts that target everything ! Yes you can I would suggest that you pick 2/3 abdominal exercises that cover a variety of core muscles.

7. Plank 3 x 1min each
8. Crunches ( i would suggest an oblique ex as well)
Cooldown 5mins, Stepper/ rower/ treadmill 50-60% MaxHR.

My next question is being a beginner myself I'm really keen on getting a good start so looking at doing 3-4 days. So it would be something like this:
Mon- Train
Tues- REST - Can i do yoga on rest days OR some martial arts practice ?
Wed- Train
Thurs- REST
Friday- Train
Sat- REST
Sun- Train
yeah that’s prefect
So after about 1 month of building endurance would it be safe to move on to strength power and if I'm feeling great and strong despite my lower back injury, can i push myself like others with no injury can ?
I would suggest that you change your exercises and do that for a month and then work on strength as your muscles/body gets used to one specific exercise
That's about it, Hope the exercise selection is balanced as well.

Oh man. Where to start?

First of all the whole story is crazy. You're doing a course to become a personal trainer, and you are only now, after already starting on the course, going to the gym for the first time? That's really backwards. I don't want to be overly harsh here, but that's really putting the cart miles and miles ahead of the horse. Learn to lift. Get years of experience, then if you're still interested, start training people. Yeah, learn all you can from books, articles, online, other people or whatever, but don't call yourself a trainer until you have years of experience. If you've paid for the course, I guess you'd better finish it, but please don't try to train other people until you have some serious experience.

Then there's this idea of putting off strength until after you get endurance. That's also pretty turned around. What exactly are you going to endure? Something that you can't even do yet? You have to lift heavy things first, and then gain endurance at lifting heavy things. Strength is the foundation. Build the foundation first. Don't build a house then try to stick the foundation under it.

The important exercises you list are bench and squat. Rows come in close. There's no vertical pulling or pushing. I'd add press and chin ups. And deadlift as well.

I'd never put squats 5th in order, unless it's very light. Well, I guess if you're doing 2x12-15 it would have to be pretty light. I'd recommend 5x5 or ramping to 3x5 for your reps. Foundation.

We had a discussion here a few weeks ago about the advice that we typically give beginners. Our conclusion was that the most important things were motivating them to stick with exercise, and helping them get on a program that will get them good results. It's a sad fact that the vast majority of people who start exercise programs stop within weeks. Try to get past that. Get to the point that you can stick with your training consistently, week in week out for a long time; it will be worth it. It really does get to be fun. In the meantime, do a program that will give you clear results as early as possible. That'll be the great motivator.

Did you ever consider doing a published, well-established routine, like Starting Strength or StrongLifts? I know it sounds like more fun to write your own program, but you're a beginner at it. Why not take advantage of the knowledge of people who have both formal education and years of experience at training beginners like you?

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

Like the Doc said, train strength before endurance. Training high reps leads to sloppy form. Sloppy form leads to injuries.

I'm not going to repeat what he said and I agree with all of it.

Using treadmill as a warmup is pretty well useless. Think of your martial arts training. Do you warm up on a treadmill? Warmup the joints and muscles you will use in the workout. That means mobility work. Different coaches have different method but something as simple as shoulder rotations will be more effective at preventing injuries than anything you could do on a treadmill.

Core work is incredibly important and good on you for picking planks. Don't forget side planks. These can be made easier or harder as ability improves. Crunches are just a useless exercise. Do something like rollouts to work the abs. It's much more effective and less damaging to the spine. There are many variations that work the full spectrum of abilities. A swiss ball rollout might be the simplest to implement for beginners. Move to integrative core exercises as you or your trainee is able. Examples are Turkish Getups. Carries with uneven loaded are also good.

Cool-downs are unnecessary. You'll cool down instinctivly anyway. Finish your workout with something that elevates your heart rate a few times. Then hit the shower.

Your right about polymetric training being for later. You need a base first. However, younger people can do this type of training easier. Children call this playing. The very young are extremely elastic and can tolerate polymetric training even without strength training, as they get older, elasticity decreases. As you get to working with elderly populations, it has to be implemented extremely carefully.



That's not "perfect", he should have said it was "OK". That means that you're working out Sunday and Monday. If you want to improve it, the second week, should be Tues/Thurs/Sat, then repeat. To say something is prefect, means you can't improve on it any further. (I hope you'll show this thread to your tutor when it's done.)

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

First thing that popped into my eyes, was the list of your postural conditions.
"Winged scapula, protruding head, rounded shoulders, slight pelvic tilt and pronated feet, Also have lower back condition."
Now that's a pretty impressive list, doesn't sound like a personal trainer or even less like someone who trains yoga. I mean, what I can see here are atleast a few possible cases of too tight muscles. Atleast from what I know, pelvic tilt and winged scapula can also be the result of muscles that are simply a bit contracted or not on its full length. In example, the muscles that externally rotate your hip can make your pelvis tilt if the are too tense. Almost all of those muscles are attached to femur, and can cause the slight pelvic tilt by pulling your pelvis toward the femur because the muscle is not relaxed. In example m. piriformis and the obturator muscles. Same thing could be possible with the winged scapula. Serratus anterior muscle could also be functioning wrong, or not function at all. There are workouts to improve serratus anterior, and other muscles that strongly involve in moving the scapula.
Of course I always could be wrong, but here are my theories about the issue, maybe someone may correct me or present some arguments about the issue. Unless there is something more serious like paralysis or trauma around those sections, I stand behind my opinion. The funny thing was that you were doing yoga. That doesn't quite add up. The pelvic tilt could be treated with streching. It's always possible that the martial arts training and the kicks are straining your hips external rotators and they need to be loosen a little.

Also I wouldn't be too worried about training yoga or martial arts on the rest days. Especially yoga and common streching should do no harm in your program. To me I draw the line to one complete rest day per week, in which I don't exercise anything at all, or something that is very light and recovering. Sometimes I need more than a day, but that's not too usual.

And for the last note I would be interested to hear about your studies. How long does it last? How deep is your training: How well do you understand what you are doing starting from anatomy and kinesiology to different types of exercising and training. Did it cost you? And is the studying only textual and this lecture -type, or do you actually get to do things and learn from doing. And finally how qualified do you feel yourself to be in training people?

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Prove the impossible!

Heavy lifting will fix most of those postural problems, especially deadlifts and heavy rowing. They're actually pretty common in weak people who don't train properly. Edit, I know that's redundant. If they train properly, they wouldn't be weak.

_________________
Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

Well thanks for everyone replies, It took me a day to simply take in what you all said as I was expecting a tough reaction. But you all seem to provide and ask some good questions / answers.
Starting from the top, ill answer the remaining questions and helpfully you can answer some more of mine :

Jungledoc -

Indeed it is crazy, much like myself. My reasons for doing the course was for my own knowledge on our bodies and how to train myself. I have no intention of teaching at this stage because it is obvious if one does not have results for themselves, you cannot expect to teach others. So let us leave that on the side for now.



I’m quiet surprised you added those, I thought it couldn’t be done for me. Especially since I have my own injuries and postural issues too.



Just so I understand what your saying 5reps / 5sets right >? And if I plan on doing strength I presume the weight would have to be heavy enough for me to lift and do those reps/ sets ?


Absolutely, I think I will seeing the reaction I got on this forum, It’s been tough learning online to be honest and the time I spent talking to my friend in training who used to be a P.T I learnt a bit about myself and where I was at, and that’s nowhere. All the time I spent studying, I thought I would be heading in the right direction, however I sensed since during our conversation there is a fv(k load that needs to be learnt and done. In addition, I felt the information I learnt was small and tiny, compared to what has yet to be learned. And that was my experience talking to someone, imagine what I could gain with a mentor..

My initial reason for doing this was to learn for myself while I do my martial arts and yoga for a bit. I planned on actually learning yoga and teaching that while I do my personal training and gym. ( To be really honest, I only wanted a program what would compliment what I was doing and make me stronger so I dont have all these random postural issues. )

I have just looked up what stronglifts are and I’m surprised at what I’m looking at. Here is one example I found of it. Sounds too good to be true if that’s all it is..


Steward

Rollouts are using that single wheel right >?




So I should just incorporate those 2 workouts into my program ? What weight should I start out with ?

Dub

In relation to my injuries I didn’t get them all at once..It was progressive starting with the lower back. I was training regularly in my martial arts and it did not involve crazy kicks or stuff, there was a base workout that had to be done followed by some technique. The rest of the other things started coming when I worked too much, did not take care of myself and stoped training. The worst thing you can do to yourself. Therefore, it all piled on top with losing motivation in training and some life problems.

Once I do get underway, I will take your advice and not train on a rest day. I would hate to go backwards and injury myself.

To answer your question about my studies it takes about 2 years to complete or sooner they say. I took it part time because I needed the convenience and time to study at my own pace which worked out ok, but studying from home is really challenging not only because there are distractions but I’m studying something practical and it doesn’t help when I’m not actually doing it as much as I should be. Having said that, I cannot say my training is very deep but I am progressively learning and still need a fair way to go to actually understand what I’ve been studying.

I am well aware where I am at, and what needs to be done, just doing what is right and understanding the information is tough for me, especially when I could really use a mentor or coach or something. I was thinking of actually getting a P.T for myself to give me a start in my own training then I could use that to help push me along.

My course was won in a fitness expo, I applied for six different colleges and what do you know, I won, it’s worth about $2,700. I am certainly not interested in being a random Personal Trainer because it does no benefit for others or me. In my own heart, I want to know and do all that I can, so I have something solid to share with others.

As for training people, could do it, if I wanted to, but there would be many gaps in my training and it would be simple textbook stuff and very limited. As you saw with my program. I went endurance instead of strength foundation, which is what I needed. No, I will not feel confident unless I have achieved my results for myself and learnt a TON through my own experience. Hope that puts you at ease. I certainly have a long way to go and I was hoping on doing something with this when I finished. So much for that.


Since I am far from being a personal trainer, is there a mentor or anything on here that would be willing to get me a program based on what I have provided? OR should I instead just get a personal trainer for myself. For some reason I would prefer a little help as doing it myself does not seem like ill get a good start, a little push would be nice.

Cheers.

fenixforeva,

Deadlifts and rows are part of the Starting Strength and Stronglift programs that JungleDoc mentioned. Once you strengthen your back, your sholulders will pull back and a lot of your postural problems will improve. It doesn't mean you don't have to consciously keep trying to improve your posture though.

Ab rollouts can be done with the little wheel but they're hard. Google swiss ball rollouts and you'll find all kinds of examples but do them from the toes in order to fully engage the core.

Start out your program with ridiculously low weights. Learn the form precisely and make gradual, steady weight increases each workout.

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

SL 5x5 has the free e book that explains that particular program http://stronglifts.com/free-stronglifts-5x5-report/

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Diana
Goals
squat 150
bench 100
DL 175

Wow I don't really know what to say to this.

Most people that become trainers do so because they have spent years doing it and have became passionate about it wanting to share the knowledge with less fortunate uninformed people.

I am also going to school. I have been lifting for 13 years almost 14 years now. Well since I was 13. I would recommend starting strength and any of the big compound olympic lifts. Build your base before you really try to go crazy.

Being new to the gym you should see gains with whatever you do but it is better to do it right with correct form than it would be to lift sloppy.

Quality over quantity. lift with intensity. Aim for your best everyday. Set goals weekly monthly and track your progress and last but not least kill that $hit!. You can do it. Become a product of your knowledge. The journey is long but fun and very rewarding.

John

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"Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door"

Kyle Chandler

Yeah thanks for the feedback everyone, I know im off to slow start but better late than sorry I guess. Ill be reading up on the stronglifts and starting it as soon as i finished the ebook.